If you’re going to get lost in Boston, or even misplaced, try to make it in the Back Bay. For one the grid layout of the streets—despite the numerous one way roads—at least makes turning around the block possible—a feat less likely anywhere else in the city. But equally valuable is the proliferation of construction. And with construction, comes, you guessed it, the ubiquitous police officer and lots of traffic The two elements are more often than not frustrating to the driver attempting to make forward progress, but to the misplaced driver they are invaluable. The construction makes it easy to stop without holding up traffic, while rolling down your window to ask directions of aforementioned officers is also easily accomplished.
I was in just such a situation as I was looking for the entrance to the Mass Pike that I know exists by Copley somewhere. In any case, I had been driving on Storrow Drive East looking for the Mass Ave exit which also heads right to a Pike entrance. Driving along, carefully reading the road signs, I saw not one that indicated an exit for either Mass Ave or the direction for the Pike. I don’t know what the signs actually did say—getting back to that point was certainly a time consuming task not worth the undertaking— but I do know what the signs did NOT say. There was no sign indicating to exit here for the Mass Pike or I-90 (a large, well traveled road for locals and out-of-towners alike) nor was there any sign indicating to exit here for Massachusetts Avenue which clearly ran directly overhead. Some sign engineer decided that mentioning destination names like Cambridge would somehow be more helpful than indicating the names of streets! Who are these designers anyhow?
So I exited into the Back Bay, knowing I could easily turn around there, and was grateful for the plethora of construction sites with their requisite assortment of officers watching the heavy machinery at work. For once, I was happy to be stopped right by a construction site and happily took the advice of the amused officer who directed me to the Mass Pike entrance which, while not the closest in distance, was certainly the easiest to drive to, requiring only left turns onto 1 way streets. Approaching from this new direction I was happily greeted by large, hard to miss signs proclaiming the Mass Pike entrance. Likely they were constructed there as a warning to keep errant motorists from accidentally entering the Pike rather than directing out-of-towners back to whence they came. Regardless, I heeded the signs and was soon on my way west.
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